This Shrine to Steak Deserves a Little More Respect

Peter Luger Steakhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is to be attended in proper attire, this critic says.Credit
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

A reader wanted to know whether she could take her young children to the Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn. You’ll see how I answered, and what other readers had to say about that, below. Also: Where to take parents who resemble George Costanza’s, from “Seinfeld.” Now, to the questions!

Q. My brother-in-law, his pregnant wife and their three girls (ages 2, 4 and 6) are visiting me and my husband here in New York for the first time. My husband and his brother love a good steak, so we’re looking for a family-friendly steakhouse for a Friday night dinner. I originally thought Peter Luger would be perfect: very New York and casual enough for the kids. However, I wasn’t able to get reservations, and it’s pretty far out of the way to go to on the off chance that we can squeeze in. I’m now leaning toward Wolfgang’s for an early dinner. I’ve been to the TriBeCa location around that time, and while the bar is busy, the dining room only had a few occupied tables, which makes me think children wouldn’t be a disturbance. Do you have any other suggestions? We’d like to stay in Manhattan, preferably between Chambers Street and Midtown.

A. I want to be perfectly clear about something before moving along to answer this question: Peter Luger is not a casual restaurant. It is true that you can go there for dinner and see people dining in Giants jerseys and mom jeans, as if the dining room were an airport gate filled with Americans waiting for a delayed flight to Las Vegas. But these people are to be derided and have done much to drag the restaurant down. Peter Luger at its best is a meat church, a restaurant to attend in suit and tie or cocktail wear, the sort of place where maybe you can’t get a reservation on the phone, but where you can always get a table with the help of a firm handshake and perhaps some understanding at the door. Children shouldn’t be in there until they’re 10, at least.

Now, that said, Wolfgang’s, opened by a former head waiter at Luger named Wolfgang Zwiener, could work very well for you, particularly with an early reservation and particularly at its downtown location. (The one on Park Avenue South is a little jocko and business-forward for this particular application.) And steakhouses, despite what I wrote above about Luger, can be terrific restaurants for children. Potatoes go over very well with the kiddles. As does meat, of course. My father’s technique was to give each infant or toddler granddaughter at the steakhouse table an enormous slice of steak, as large as a rattle, and to let them chew on this as if it were a floppy toy.

When this question was posted on the Diner’s Journal blog of The New York Times, readers added their opinions:

A couple of years ago, we took our 3-year-old very well-behaved grandson to Peter Luger for his dad’s birthday. He loved it, and was quiet, ate, had dessert, and the normally not so friendly wait staff loved him. It really depends on the kid. I would be reluctant to take his brother, who is 3 ½; he’s not as well behaved. — Phyllis, New Jersey

I agree about Peter Luger’s — on the rare occasions I was brought along to Luger’s as a child and teenager, I remember it being quiet and formal. But I recently went back after not having been for several years and was surprised by how casual it was. I guess it wasn’t my imagination that the atmosphere had changed. — Kas, New York

For many years when our kids were young we ate at Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse in Grand Central Terminal, reserving a table on the rail overlooking the station. Dinner and a show — which kept the kids captivated. The food was very decent as well, although it’s been a few years. The memories are so wonderful I’d go back in a minute with the now grown family. — L M, New York

To the person looking for a good steakhouse for kids: try Landmarc in the Time Warner Center. It has a great children’s menu and the wait staff is great with kids. The grown-up menu is quite good as well! — Danny, New York

Q I live in the East Village, and my parents drive in from New Jersey to visit for dinner one Sunday a month. They have simple tastes, eat mainly Italian and American fare, and do not like overpriced, pretentious, modern, hip or loud restaurants. They want to understand every word on the menu, and believe a tip is earned and should not be not expected. Tiny seating areas have been a problem too. Think George Costanza’s parents. Where should I take them?

Photo

Peter Luger’s steak for four.Credit
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

A. For you, perhaps, was Patsy’s founded in 1944 and placed on West 56th Street in Manhattan to please your parents. (It was Sinatra’s favorite restaurant, Ma! Come on!) Simple, hearty Italian food of the extremely old school, in just the kind of atmosphere you describe. Alternatively, and closer to your home, you might take them to Chat ‘n’ Chew off Union Square, but I worry that your father (if he’s anything like Jerry Stiller’s Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld,” anyway) might think it ridiculous. (What do they serve, cats? I don’t want to chat!) Maybe the NoHo Star? You can get a nice, simple American meal there, in an atmosphere that’s old-parent-friendly. But start at Patsy’s and work your way south.

Q. My husband and I work in the city and commute from Stamford, Conn. On Friday nights we like to stick around and eat here rather than fight the crowd heading back to Fairfield County. (We do not have kids.) Too often, however, we find ourselves at end of the week with no restaurants identified and eating at a place that is O.K. but not really what we wanted for our night out. We like the camaraderie of eating at the bar and would be game for just about anything. Thank you for your suggestions.

A. One week you should have dinner at Casa Lever, on Park Avenue at 53rd Street. Another should take you to Chin Chin, Jimmy Chin’s fabulous Chinese, on 49th Street, off Third. You should at least have some drinks at the bar at the charming East Side Social Club, on East 51st Street, maybe a salad and pasta on the way to the train. And then one Friday night I think you should head down to Brooklyn and have dinner at Vinegar Hill House. You’ll have your house on the market by Monday and be shopping at the Trader Joe’s on Court Street by spring.

A version of this article appears in print on December 17, 2010, on page C37 of the New York edition with the headline: This Shrine to Steak Deserves a Little More Respect. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe